


Nightmare

by LadyAvalon



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 00:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3875080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAvalon/pseuds/LadyAvalon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nightmares haunt Cloud. Zack scares them away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the character in this fic. If I did, there would be harems.

Cloud has suffered nightmares all his life. From the ethereal terrors of the legends his mother would tell him, to the terrifyingly real ones of the bullying he suffered at the hands of those that should have been his playmates. The first time they came, he braved the dark and the cold and the horror and fled to his mother’s bed. She pushed him out with a disgusted snort and told him that he was a big boy now, too big to be scared of such things, and to be strong.

He huddled against the chest of drawers all night, all his courage having been used in the mad dash to get there, none left to get back. It was cold, and he was cold, and it earned him a mild case of pneumonia. He never went with his fears to his mother again.

When he signed up for the SOLDIER program, the nightmares turned into pain, tiredness, the feeling of not being good enough, of failing, of not achieving what he had set out to be. Of not being able to protect those he loves. Of never being able to stand up against those who had hurt him.

He’s learnt to be quiet now, so he hides under the blanket and grips his pillow and counts prime numbers until the panic goes away.

It ends the first night Zackary Fair took him to his bed. The nightmares quietened down, subdued, more like a whimper than plain out screaming. All Zack had to do was wrap his arms around the tiny blond for his nights to be calm and silent. If any nightmares dared as much peep in Cloud’s direction, they were scared away by soft whispers, promises that he was okay, that Zack was there and that he would never let anything hurt him.

And Cloud realises that it’s okay to be protected as well as protector once in a while. That it doesn’t matter if he’s not always strong, that sometimes he can be scared and in need of help. That he can let another take up the burden if only for a little while. That he can trust Zack Fair to have his back so that he, Cloud, can become a SOLDIER too and be able to protect Zack right back.

Because they’re friends, right?


End file.
